Pandarian Cooking - All the way from 1 - 600!

Cooking in Mists of Pandaria

Welcome to my guide to leveling up your cooking skill in Mists of Pandaria. Most features have currently been unlocked on the Beta server and I thought it was time to make a guide for this profession as it has undergone some changes. You will find many new recipes, ingredients and from what I heard, we will even be able to plant our own vegetables! But this is not unlocked yet, so I cannot tell if you it's true or not.

I no longer play WoW and this guide is no longer maintained - Regards - Abura

If your skill is all ready at 525 you can click on the section for 525 till 600. If not you can keep on reading as this will be a quick overview of what you will need to level up from 1 till 525. This can be done fairly quickly in Halfhill, if you have the right items in your bag or available to you. Mosts of these mats can be bought and found in the Pandarian regions. They won't require any "old world" items to level you up to 525.

Changes made in Mists of Pandaria

In Mists of Pandaria you will have the choice to learn a Master skill in cooking. You can learn "The way of the" Brew, Grill, Oven, Pot, Steamer and Wok. All have different recipes, with of course also different stats. The new thing is that all these separate "ways" also have their own skill level, as you can see in the picture. What this does is raise your total cooking skill but for the separate master skill recipes you will have to level it up separately. In the picture you can see that my "Way of the Pot" is higher then my "Way of the Grill". So I can learn higher skilled recipes from the "Pot" trainer then the "Grill" trainer. Each master skill has it's own stats, though the ones that are raid wide will have a 200k HP and Mana + 250 Stat bonus.

NPC, Recipe and Item Overview

Your cooking instructors

Sungshin Ironpaw - Guide to the Ways. Initial trainer for Pandarian recipes.She is also the trainer who helps you get from 1 to 525.

Jogu the Drunk - This NPC will offer quests, but they are not yet implemented. You can talk to him and ask him about tomorrows crop, this will cost each time you ask him. More info at the dailies section about this guy.

Cooking 1 - 525

Start off by talking to Sungshin Ironpaw at Halfhill in Valley of the Four Winds. Accept So You Want to Be a Chef... and talk to Sungshin again and tell her you need cooking supplies. Buy the 5 Pandaren Peach from her and make your Sliced Peaches. This should be the start of a long journey to skill level 525. She can teach you the following recipes after. Please note that these give 5 skill points per make and that I've given the max skill onto where the next recipe becomes available, this guarantees always maximum skill-ups. You could continue until with a recipe until it goes yellow, as you see fit.

Cooking 525 - 600

If you started reading here, you all ready have a cooking skill of 525 and are ready to learn the ways of Panda cooking! For those leveling it might be good to know that these will reward you the full amount of xp for your level.

After you've done that quest Sungshin will give you 6 others quests. Here's the list and the items needed to complete the quest. Some of the items you need for these quests are sold by Nam Ironpaw. He sells them in bags that costs 1 x Ironpaw Token and contains 5 items.

Completing all these quests will reward you with one Ironpaw Token per quest

As you can see these will require the same items as the quest sets before. This is therefore fairly easy to achieve, just get the mats and complete. Remember you can buy some of these mats for a token. You will get a token once you complete the quests from the Master Chefs.

Those last few points can be expensive on mats, however, aside from the darkmoon faire, there is always the 'old fashioned' dailies available, easy extra points, saving you a lot of time trying to cook at max level.

The Tillers - How to build your farm

Replenishing the Pantry - Nam Ironpaw wants you to make one bundle of groceries. Basically go back to Merchant Cheng buy any of the Empty Containers. The smart thing to do here is buy a container of which you have 100 in your bag. This way you buy the container, fill it up and deliver the quest. As far as I know it can be any meat, fish, fruit or vegetable for this to count.

At this point you are totally done cooking and you should be ready to stock up for your raiding and all the dailies should be unlocked. From now on you will be doing dailies where you will be killing a lot of Hozen and getting reputation with the different NPC's from the Tillers.

For a awesome guide on reputation with the Tillers faction I'd recommend this guide: The Tillers by Lore

Latest Updates: June, 2013

Edited the amount of items needed for certain quests as this has changed since Mists of Pandaria went live.

Hopefully you like this guide and you will rate it! Idea's on improvements are always welcome, just comment here and let me know!

Comments

Comment by asakawa

Hiya, it's only maps that don't support \ so please could you add that to make all the links parse properly?

Comment by Abura

Ok I've done as you said and now I've added more stuff to the guide to make it even more complete. Also finding more quests, but I need to see how to unlock these properly.

ps, the picture of the banquet will be updated to another one, but you get the idea right? I live in Holland and the server is US-time so we are in the dark quite a lot of the time

Comment by asakawa

I really like this guide. Good info, nice use of images. Good stuff!

Comment by FatalHeaven

Awesome guide. Nice use of images to add flavor too.

Comment by Lore

If anyone is preparing to do the grind to 600, a little tip that might save you some time and tokens. Each cooking recipe gives 5 levels when it's orange eg. 525 to 550, then it turns yellow it will give 1 level twice eg. 550 to 552, then stays green untill 555 at which point it becomes grey and no longer gives experience.The reason this is important is that at the top end of the profession the materials are very high, so you'll be cooking 6 feasts from 575 to 595, then if you're lucky only 2 more untill 597... but thats where the trouble starts, and you have to pile in the materials to get those last 3 points which can be anywhere up to another 15 feasts. Hundreds and hundreds of ingredients.So, the trick is to grind out the green levels earlier when the cooking materials are low.

When Eternal Blossom Fish turns yellow, insead of swapping to the feasts, get the last four levels out of the same fish. (It is very important you dont accidently go all the way to 580 otherwise you dont gain the benefit).This means that your last orange feast will guarantee to take you from 594 to 599, instead of from 590 to 595 leaving you with a much easier grind for that final point.

The other way to skip those last annoying green levels is to simply wait untill darkmoon faire comes along and complete Putting the Crunch in the Frog for 5 free cooking skill.

(edit) - It appears this tip for leveling cooking may not be possible anymore due to changes to cooking in the latest patch, but I'll save deleting it untill things settle a bit. Worst case is that it's simply not possible rather than harmful.The recipies no longer become yellow and then green, nor do they give 5 levels at a time, but instead 2 levels and drop straight to grey as the next recipe becomes available.

Don't forget if you find the guide above helpful/use its idea to "VOTE" under the rating system (top left corner). Help promote other guide authors that help us in the game:)

Comment by NeilReynolds

I may have missed it, but I believe you only need 5x Raw Tiger Steak, Ginseng, Wildfowl Breast, Jade Lungfish and Giant Mantis Shrimp.

For example, you need 5 steak for one quest, but he returns the 5 steak as part of the reward, then you need the same 5 steak to cook the item for the next quest.

You do need 10x carrots, as the recipe needs 2 carrots each. The recipe for sauteed carrots now requires 2 carrots, and doesn't need rice at all.

You only need 5x rice now.

Comment by Endruin

Thanks for all the helpful hints it really comes in handy! I_I( =I_I

Comment by Theolol

(...) the quest To Be a Master. At this time I am not sure when this becomes available, info on this would be nice.

You need to have reached 600 Cooking (with any of the Ways) before the quest becomes available. However, in order to complete its objectives you'll need 600 with all other Ways. These are the pre-requisites for Cooking School Bell and the dailies it allows.

Grawn Thromwyn - This NPC will offer quests, but they are not yet implemented. You can talk to him and ask him about tomorrows crop, this will cost 10 each time you ask him. More info at the dailies section about this guy.

He actually started giving quests. Also, price for crops is 25 gold.

Comment by Katsin

So I typed up a rough estimate of the things you'll need and where they come from in order to get from 1-525 cooking. The rest is determined on the Way you choose, but you get the idea.42x Golden Carp -- Fishing anywhere in Pandaria.30x Pandaren Peach -- Sungshin Ironpaw sells this at 1g 50s each25x Yak Milk -- Sungshin Ironpaw sells this at 1g 60s each18x Needle Mushrooms -- Sungshin Ironpaw sells this at 1g 20s each12x Red Beans -- Sungshin Ironpaw sells this at 2g 70s each13x Rice -- Sungshin Ironpaw sells this at 1g 40s each6x Silkworm Pupa -- Sungshin Ironpaw sells this at 1g 70s each6x Barley -- Sungshin Ironpaw sells this at 1g 20s each6x Farm Chicken -- Sungshin Ironpaw sells this at 3g each6x Instant Noodles -- Sungshin Ironpaw sells this at a whopping 70s each3x Ginseng -- Sungshin Ironpaw sells this at 3g 50s each3x Wildfowl Breast -- Drop from random Bird NPCs in Pandaria. I suggest going slightly North of Halfhill into marshy area and killing the cranes there.EDIT: Forgot about the final Pandaren cooking recipe, Rice Pudding. You will need to make one of these in order to get to 525.

Comment by hoang1216198227

yeah, that darkmoon fair quest give a 5 point boost to your profession and save a hell lot of time and annoyance and expense for that five point. great tip on that one.

Comment by karatechop

Great guide.

just one question...does the darkmoon faire quest give 5 points to each "way of XXXXX" too or is it just cooking itself?

Comment by Twizelbang

In order to get cooking maxed without using the AH. You will need to learn Fishing . The higher your fishing skill, the quicker you can catch the fish you need for cooking.

When i started off in Jade Forest on my little hunter, she didn't have fishing maxed out, she was only about 450 fishing skill. Even at this high skill... i was mostly catching nothing but grey junk.

Cool guide, well worth 5star award.

Comment by Arjuana

For reasons unknown to me, I didn't hit 600 cooking, but 599 instead. I believe I will be allowed to hit 600 cooking when I master *all* the cooking ways.

Not even the old world dailies for cooking did any good. Yes, they pushed me to 599, but not 600.

Comment by rmccaulley

Buying all the mats (for 1-525, including the cost of 5 Rice Puddings to complete the quest Ready for Greatness) cost a total of 180g 70 silver and you'll still need 42 Golden Carp and 2 Wildfowl Breasts

Comment by Nubucanezzer

Those last few points can be expensive on mats, however, aside from the darkmoon faire, there is always the 'old fashioned' dailies available, easy extra points, saving you a lot of time trying to cook at max level.

Total cost of all the mats (except the Golden Carp and Wildfowl Breast both of which you'll have to farm or buy on the AH) and training is 282g 13s 70c, after turning in the 2 cooking quests Sungshin Ironpaw gives you as you're leveling cooking.

You cannot just learn and level 1 'way' of cooking and still be able to buy and use the bundles for exchanges. In order to exchange the groceries for the things you need, you first must learn the 1st step recipes of each of the ways.

Comment by korelfaythe

Looking to get to 600 in all specialties? For those of you who like to go out and farm/fish for the entire set of mats:Ingredient

100 Year Soy Sauce x30

Emperor Salmon x63

Giant Mantis Shrimp x80

Ginseng x25

Green Cabbage x250

Jade Lungfish x43

Jade Squash x315

Juicycrunch Carrot x370

Krasarang Paddlefish x76

Mogu Pumpkin x250

Mushan Ribs x50

Raw Crab Meat x50

Raw Crocolisk Belly x50

Raw Tiger Steak x30

Raw Turtle Meat x63

Red Blossom Leek x250

Redbelly Mandarin x50

Reef Octopus x63

Scallions x65

Striped Melon x60

White Turnip x250

Wildfowl Breast x93

Witchberries x315

Don't forget to use those wonderful beasts on Timeless Isle to 'double-dip' on all those timeless dailies.